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"Stock markets across the Middle
East fell on Tuesday alongside steep drops in global stock
prices because of renewed uncertainty about the state of China's
economy.

Stock markets fell after data showed China's manufacturing
activity had contracted in August at its fastest pace in three
years, reinforcing fears of a slowdown in the world's
second-largest economy despite a flurry of government support
measures.

Oil fell more than 4 percent after the Chinese data, giving
up some of the gains made on Monday, when both Brent and U.S.
crude futures had surged more than 8 percent."

"The removal of sanctions on Iran could provide a timely lift for the real-estate market in Dubai after it “flattened out” in recent months, according to property consultancy Cluttons.

The company has published its 2015 UAE property report, which points out that Iranian nationals accounted for 12 per cent of all property transactions in Dubai in 2010. By the first quarter of this year, this figure had dropped to 3 per cent.

The head of research at Cluttons, Faisal Durrani, said that if sanctions are formally lifted as expected in January or February next year, global companies looking to target the market are most likely to set up shop in Dubai. The report points out that UAE-Iran cross-border trade stood at Dh62.4 billion last year, and that Iran’s government estimates that its oil and gas sector needs investment of Dh734bn over the next five years, as well as a Dh18bn requirement for aviation."

"Saudi Arabian stocks quickly gave up initial gains and Egypt's fell in early trade on Tuesday, as global equities came under pressure from weak Chinese manufacturing data.

Asian and European stock markets dropped after data showed China's manufacturing activity had slowed the most in three years in August, reinforcing fears of a greater slowdown in the world's second-largest economy despite a flurry of government support measures.

The main Saudi stock index rose as much as 1.0 percent in the opening minutes, reacting to oil's overnight surge, but then trimmed its gains to 0.2 percent."

"The discovery of one of the world’s largest gasfields off the Egyptian coast could fuel the country for decades.

Italy’s Eni said on Sunday that the find, covering an area of about 100 square kilometres, at the Zohr Prospect in the Mediterranean Sea could hold a potential of 30 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) – the largest discovered so far in the area. Egypt has proven gas reserves of 77 Tcf, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).

“The historic discovery will be able to transform the energy scenario of Egypt,” said Claudio Descalzi, chief executive of Eni. He said that as a result of being close to existing infrastructure, the start-up for the gas project could come quickly."

"Banks that loaned hundreds of millions to the troubled Atlas Jewellery chain say they suspect a wilful default by the group, with industry sources saying money was diverted to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

The founding chairman, M.M. Ramachandran, used funds borrowed from UAE banks to buy 51 per cent equity in a defunct company, GEE Wollens, and renamed it Atlas Jewellery India, the sources said.

No charges have been filed by authorities and the allegations have not been tested in court."

"Gulf stock markets, which had mostly opened higher on Tuesday in response to an overnight surge of oil prices, quickly gave up those gains and moved into the red after leading Asian equity indexes fell because of poor data from China.

Oil futures soared more than 8 percent late on Monday, though they then pulled back about 3 percent in Asian trade on Tuesday morning.

The surge was fuelled by an OPEC commentary saying the cartel was willing to talk to other producers to achieve reasonable oil prices, as well as by a downward revision of U.S. output data by the U.S. Energy Information Administration."

State-run China National United Oil Corp., a unit of the country’s biggest energy company, bought 36 million barrels of Middle East crude last month as part of a pricing process in Singapore used to determine commodity benchmarks around the world. While the purchases by the trader known as Chinaoil were unprecedented, what’s more unusual is that the seller of most of those cargoes was another government-owned trading company called Unipec.

“It’s unsettling and confusing for other players, and defies market logic,” Victor Shum, vice president at IHS Inc., an Englewood, Colorado-based industry consultant, said by phone from Singapore."